


A Total Change of Sentiments

by Stakebait



Category: Sense and Sensibility - Austen
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-05-26
Updated: 2010-05-26
Packaged: 2017-10-09 17:59:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,045
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/90055
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stakebait/pseuds/Stakebait
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Elinor offers counsel to her prospective brother in law; he is reluctant to accept it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Total Change of Sentiments

**Author's Note:**

  * For [rosehiptea (TeaRoses)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TeaRoses/gifts).



> For rosehiptea, who asked for up to 1,000 words of Colonel Brandon's feelings for Marianne via fandom_charity. Many thanks to jadelennox and pocketnaomi for fast and fastidious beta reading.

  
_"This," said he, "cannot hold; but a change,  
a total change of sentiments--No, no, do not desire it;  
for when the romantic refinements of a young mind  
are obliged to give way, how frequently are they  
succeeded by such opinions as are but too common, and too  
dangerous!"_ \-- Colonel Brandon

Marianne –- now, since her sister's long-awaited marriage, the eldest Miss Dashwood -- was tying up her pelisse in the entry to the Delaford Parsonage when Colonel Brandon was shown into the parlour. Having taken his leave of her and declined her offer to postpone her walk – a proposal made with such civility and warmth as would have astonished Elinor half a year ago – he stood to watch her quite out of sight.

"She would have staid for you," observed Elinor, with such ready comprehension as showed her thoroughly mistress of his confidence.

Brandon turned from the window with as eager a countenance as he had ever shewn her. "Then you think I should not put aside my hopes?"

"Certainly," said Elinor. "Already Marianne's feelings towards you comprise all that is affectionate and thankful. What might not a few more weeks do?"

Colonel Brandon ascertained that no further glimpse of distant parasol or petticoat could be obtained before committing himself to a seat beside the fire.

"I am grateful indeed for your counsel, Mrs. Ferrars," he confessed. "The more because you have had the great kindness to tell me precisely what I came determined to be told. Would that my conscience were so accommodating."

"Your conscience?" Elinor only looked her astonishment. She could not conceive that one who had been so kind to her husband, without any claim of interest or blood, would have neglected any duty.

"I cannot be at ease while my best hopes rest on your sister's misery."

Elinor took up her work again, that Colonel Brandon might be spared the necessity of meeting her gaze. "Yes, if they did. But her misery is not to be laid to your door. It is to her better education that your hopes are indebted."

Brandon took up some china ornaments, painted by Margaret, and began carefully to worsen their arrangement.

He sighed. "I fear it is much the same. You know my views on the unwisdom of a woman of such romantic impressions, being brought to share the general opinion of the world."

Poor Colonel Brandon! As Elinor could offer no better consolation than her belief that Marianne would soon do so, she thought to lighten his mood with raillery.

"I fear Mrs. Jennings has given you too great an impression of the world's concern for your felicity," she said.

The Colonel gave a civil smile, but it would not do. His eyes remained grave and shadowed – or so it appeared to Elinor in the brief glances she spared from her needle.

"It is the opinion of the world that a gentlewoman is best given in marriage to a man who will guide and shelter her."

"And do you not agree?" asked Elinor.

"I?" Brandon seemed startled. "Yes, but I am the most commonplace of men. It is your sister I think of."

"Though I speak it with affection," said Elinor, "Marianne is as much in need of guidance to shape her principles as any young woman of taste and talent. My mother--"

Her discretion stopt her from speaking what might seem blame of such an affectionate parent, but the Colonel's gaze conveyed his perfect comprehension even as his words seemed not to hear.

"Is there not something sorrowful," he asked, "in the thought of such a rare disposition brought to care more for, for prudence and obligation than for – I had almost said passion?"

Elinor laid aside her stitching and sought Brandon's gaze. "No more," she said, "than there is in seeing a wild horse tamed."

The Colonel's look was wry. "So much?"

Elinor smiled. "You share with my sister a taste for the picturesque I had not guessed. For myself, I confess I do not see any thing sad in the sight of what must injure itself and all it touches made useful, governed, and content."

Colonel Brandon gave his assent, but his countenance did not lighten.

"I see what it is," exclaimed Elinor after a few minutes' talk on indifferent subjects. "You are resolved to be grave and silent still, and to think any thing of your chances adapted to the purpose. If I had told you to despair, that had sufficed. But should it be in my power to say she returned your affection with all the warmth you could desire, it would next become your conviction that such excessive feeling were injurious to her health so soon after her late disappointment."

The Colonel looked with surprise at this speech, delivered as it was with the greater familiarity that habits of intimacy with a gentleman had given Elinor -- perhaps more than their friendly relations could warrant, or their relative positions authorize.

Elinor was much afraid she had offended him, and had opened her mouth to offer an apology for the impropriety of her speech when the Colonel forestalled her. He even chuckled, allowing her a glimpse of the boy he must once have been.

"I fear you have the right of it, Mrs. Ferrars," he admitted. "I am half afraid of my own happiness, lest my presumption be its ruin."

"Providence is not so callous," Elinor reproved, gently as befitted a parson's wife. "It was not for your happiness that those you cared for suffered."

"Of course," Brandon assented, "but I have been so long in the habit of solemnity I scarcely know how to conduct myself without it."

He studied his hands upon the arm of the sopha as if they were a stranger's.

"That, Marianne may teach you," said Elinor, with a smile for the memory of her sister's lively spirits, as unguarded in joy as ever they were in loss.

Brandon made no answer, and Elinor was content to resume her work in the silence congenial to the mood of each. But in so far as one may fairly judge of a man's mind by the play of his countenance, she thought Colonel Brandon was not displeased with the visions he perceived in the flickering of the fire.


End file.
